Page 51 of Kill, Sleep, Repeat: Vol II

Because I know this is what she needs. She’s been running for too long, and now it’s time to stop.

And I’ve never been more certain of anything in my life. What she needs isn’t freedom. It’s a vacation. A long one.

And then, it hits me. I could end this now. I could stop the train, pull the emergency brake, and let her go. Let her think she’s won. Let her think she’s free. But that’s not why I’m here, is it?

No. I’m here because she needs a little rest, but I need something from her. Something I lost three years ago, before she betrayed me, ordered the hit, and left me for dead in a shallow grave.

I didn’t die. Not really. But something in me did. And now, I’m here to take back what’s mine. To finish whatshestarted.

Revenge. That’s what I wanted back then. But what I really wanted—what I still want—isher. Our family.

The realization hit me on that boat, cold and sharp, like a slap to the face: I’m still in love with her. After all this time, after everything. I should hate her, shouldn’t I? But I don’t. Not really. I hate what she did to me. I hate the distance she’s put between us. But when I close my eyes, I can still see her—the way she used to look at me, the way she made me feel like I would burn the world down just to see her smile.

It’s twisted.It’s insane.

And yet, here I am, going through all this trouble for her. You really don’t want to know what it takes to commandeer a train all to yourself.

I didn’t even kill that neighbor, that fuck buddy of hers—even though I could’ve.Should’ve.Even though I wanted to. It wasn’t easy taking the high road, but she needs to see I’m a changed man.

So, now there’s only one thing to do. Something I’m good at when it comes to her—wait. Wait for her to figure out the truth. Wait for her to finally understand what we both already know.

That we’renotdone.

44

SOPHIE

The train jerks hard—nothing like the steady sway I’ve grown used to. This feels wrong. The sudden shift sends a jolt through my whole body, the kind that makes my stomach drop, like I’m falling. My fingers scramble to grip the seat, but the whole car shakes, tilting to one side. The growl of the engine vibrates through my bones, low and violent, filling my ears, and the air in the car turns thick, suffocating.

I barely have time to process it when the train jerks again, even harder this time. The metal screeches like it’s being torn apart. My feet slip beneath me, and I crash into the seat in front of me, feeling the rough, jagged edge of the fabric scrape against my cheek. My pulse beats fiercely in my ears, the noise drowning out everything else.

At least until Dad’s voice cuts through the chaos, booming from the front of the car, sharp and commanding. “Hold on!”

I can barely react before it happens again. The floor tilts beneath me, too fast, like the whole damn train is tipping over. I grab at the back of the seat, but it doesn’t help. The world outside the windows is a blur of dark trees and a black sky,speeding by so fast it makes my head spin. I can’t focus on anything. I’m still stuck on how we got here.

One minute, we’re on a boat, talking about Hayley causing a scene, then we’re driving through the night in some black SUV, my parents acting like they were on a weekend getaway, ignoring everything. The next moment, we were on a chartered flight—a quiet, cramped plane, headed to God knows where. Dad said it was a surprise, and in a way, I guess it was, because now, this. The train. Speeding through the dark like we’re in some bad dream, all by ourselves.

Mom and Dad gave me the rundown, which basically felt like a nightmare—having to sit there and listen to them spill their guts when all I really care about is that Dad is alive. I’m used to the lies when it comes to my family; not much surprises me anymore. But that didn’t stop them from droning on and on about it, and I felt terrible for Malik. What an introduction to my family that was. He doesn’t seem overly upset, though; afterward, he commented he felt like he just got a minor in marital counseling. I couldn’t help but agree. It’s all so dramatic…

Three years ago, Mom was kidnapped by some psychopath named J.C. Warren. Hayley and I remember bits of it, but not much, because Mom’s gone a lot with her job anyway, and my parents kept the details about the abduction to themselves. Apparently, Warren was obsessed with her, they met on a flight or something and then he became a regular client. Dad tells it differently. He says Warren went after Mom because Dad was interfering in his business dealings. I just remember hushed whispers behind closed doors and getting to take this really fun vacation after Mom got back. Until it wasn’t fun, and we got the news that Dad had been on a golf excursion when the van he was riding in was shot up and set on fire.

Well, it turns out, Mom had ordered a hit on him because J.C. Warren fed her a bunch of lies—lies which she believed.And so, for the past three years, Dad has been hiding out, plotting his revenge, until he decided that revenge was maybe not the route he wanted to take. Time will tell, he says.

I try to make sense of it, but it’s all happening too fast, and like Malik said, it’ll make you crazy it you let it.

I’m still trying to get my bearings when Malik grabs my arm, his face wide-eyed in panic. “What the hell?—”

Before he can finish, there’s a sound—a crash, sharp and deafening—that rips through everything. It’s the kind of noise that makes my blood run cold, like it’s coming from everywhere at once.

The lights flicker above us, and then they go out completely. For a moment, everything is just...darkness.

I hear Mom say to Dad, “What the fuck?”

He responds, “This wasn’t supposed to happen yet.”

“What wasn’t supposed to happen, Michael?”

I see Dad’s phone light up. “The derailment. We were supposed to have disembarked first.”

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